Monday, January 28, 2008

Duh! Trib's "Neighborhoods For Sale" Series

How cash, clout transform Chicago neighborhoodsDEVELOPERS: Many give to aldermanic campaigns in quest to build bigger, pricier projects.ALDERMEN: They decide who can build what. Money, not planning, often drives process.HOMEOWNERS: They are often left out of the decision-making and boxed in by towering structures.Community input an illusionALDERMEN: They decide who can build what. Money, not planning, often drives the process.ADVISORY GROUPS: Billed as neighborhood's voice, they are often stacked with developers.

This is the latest investigative series from the Chicago Tribune? Who assigned these stories, some out-of-towner who's never read Mike Royko? I thought everybody already knew how things get built in this city. The Chicago Reader's Ben "TIF" Joravsky has been writing about this sort of thing for years. The Tribune casts a wider net than Joravsky by creating a database to cross-reference zoning changes and campaign contributions, as well as including graphics that aren't in the Reader's budget, but it's really just the same old story that's been told since the golden days of boodle.